This one doesn’t look that exciting but the dressing and nuts give it a real flavour kick. First cook some quinoa – a great source of veggie protein, as well as fibre, iron and magnesium. Whilst that’s cooking, lightly steam some veg – I went for broccoli, carrots and snow peas. Don’t overdo them, you still want come crunch. (The rather prettier M&S version of this salad that I got the idea from has the veg chopped up small, but I get too easily distracted and end up over cooking it if I don’t keep the veg quite large!).

When the quinoa and veg are cooked, mix them together. I’ll often make double and have the first helping hot, and then have the rest the next day as a salad. To finish it off as a salad I add some avocado, nuts (I like toasted almonds) and seeds.

Yup, most of my salads have seeds in them, they’re a great way to get your ‘thumbs’ worth of healthy monounsaturated (e.g. pumpkin seeds, as well as avocado) and polyunsaturated (e.g. sunflower seeds) fats. (I use your thumb as a way to measure how much fat to eat in each meal. Ask me for more details of my ‘Seven steps to weight loss success’ if you’re interested).

I finish it off by mixing some chilli sauce with soy sauce and sesame oil. Or if I’m feeling lazy I have a jar of jerk paste (a Brixton essential!) and I just add a teaspoon to some oil and drizzle over.